[greenpresident]

Pressing the lane assistant button on a Mercedes steering wheel and getting a “you’ll need to activate your subscription first” message really drove up my blood pressure.

[wolvoleo]

And the EU companies are surprised a lot of people buy Chinese now.

Screw the subscriptions. I don't care how much the shareholders want them.

[burnte]

> Screw the subscriptions. I don't care how much the shareholders want them.

Agreed. The investor requirements of any company mean nothing to me as the consumer.

[moolcool]

Woah, which model was this in?

[greenpresident]

https://www.reddit.com/r/mercedes_benz/comments/1oq9xum/acti...

This is an example of what I am talking about.

[hermanzegerman]

You know you can just buy it?

[GoatInGrey]

In this case, they bought and currently own the sensors and hardware that the ML model is stored on. Moreover, the software runs locally.

It's a silly example, but you can think of it as buying a house and the ceiling lights requiring a subscription to turn on.

As an aside, I wonder how long this can keep up before it begins affecting laws around theft and property damage if the person operating, storing, insuring, and maintaining the physical objects don't contractually own them. Is Mercedes a victim if the LKAS camera gets damaged or stolen, rather than you?

[b40d-48b2-979e]

They already bought the car.

[greenpresident]

It’s built in. There is a dedicated button for it. Hard to justify imho.

[Banditoz]

You're missing the point.